Hi everyone. Sorry if this sounds like a bizarre question but, did the USAF ever consider buying B variants at any point? This sounds like a Mandela effect thing but I vividly remember reading an article talking about how the USAF was going to acquire about 200 of them (IIRC) in order to calm the concerns of CAS complainers (how that would've worked I don't know) - and then it went into detail about how the AF cancelled it because they found the sortie generation for B unsatisfactory (something the Marines took issue with if I'm remembering it right). Does any know what I'm talking about? I'm completely unable to find it anymore and it's sort of making me feel like I'm crazy. Thanks.

iirc the USAF wanted to procure a few of them somewhere before the initial JSF program, for whatever reason. I think it was the CALF program at this stage, where the fighter was practically the same between the STOVL and normal variant. This video might be of some use if you care for it:

"The US Air Force has concluded that the short take-off vertical landing (STOVL) Lockheed Martin F-35B- model aircraft cannot generate enough sorties to meet its needs; therefore the service will not consider replacing the Fairchild Republic A-10 Warthog close air support jet with that variant....

..."The F-35B is well-suited to support of the Marine Air Ground Taskforce (MAGTF) in very austere locations," says USAF chief of staff Gen Norton Schwartz, speaking at an event hosted by the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. "But the reality is, is that scenario is not a high sortie generation scenario."... ???????????????????????????????????????????? [HOW "BOUT BEING CLOSER TO THE FIGHT FOR SHORT TRANSIT TIMES?]

...Retired Lt Gen George Trautman, a former US Marine Corps (USMC) deputy commandant for aviation, disputes Schwartz's assertion that the F-35B cannot generate as many sorties as the A or C model aircraft.

"The F35B has highest sortie generation rate among the three JSF [Joint Strike Fighter] variants," Trautman says. "There may be other reasons the air force doesn't want the B, but sortie rate isn't a factor."

In fact, the USMC's concept of operations depends on the STOVL variant generating more sorties more rapidly than other JSF models, says retired USMC Lt Gen Emerson Gardner, a former naval aviator.

The key performance parameters (KPP) for the F-35 require higher sortie rates for the B-model at four sorties per day. The A and C models are only required to generate three sorties per day.

"So far in SDD [System Development and Demonstration], all three variants are on track to exceed their KPPs at the completion of SDD," Gardner says. "The B looks to come in at about six sorties per day, the A at about 3.5 and the C at close to four."

While USAF will not consider buying the F-35B, the service is fully committed to buying its own conventional take-off F-35A variant...."

Sortie rates are something I am familiar with, having flown two attack types that had super rates. Naturally, the A-37 was awesome. But then the Viper came along. Huh? High tech avionics? One motor? Multi-role? Yep, all of the above.

During one ORI 1983 or so the 4th flew over 100 sorties in one day after starting with 22 or 23 airframes that morning. Seems that if the plane worked on the first sortie that is hardly ever broke.

That being said, if you want a huge sortie rate and short response time to the grunts, then keep the Hawg around for another 30 years and fly from sh!!!hole bases or strips in the desert/jungle. Dunno what scenario that would be goodl for other than useless nation-building fiascoes we have seen for too many years.

Where we were and are still good at is getting a squadron, or at least a decent number of planes, to some remote area in a day or so. Being a plans weenie back then, it was a beautiful thing to see the deployment within 24 hours of T+0. There are also OPLAN's for small groups, like 6 or 8 planes, to be airborne within 12 hours or less. Depends on your wing.++++++This whole thing sounds like it should be a thread dealing with strategy, roles and missions.

Gums sends...

Gums
Viper pilot '79
"God in your guts, good men at your back, wings that stay on - and Tally Ho!"

"The US Air Force has concluded that the short take-off vertical landing (STOVL) Lockheed Martin F-35B- model aircraft cannot generate enough sorties to meet its needs; therefore the service will not consider replacing the Fairchild Republic A-10 Warthog close air support jet with that variant....

..."The F-35B is well-suited to support of the Marine Air Ground Taskforce (MAGTF) in very austere locations," says USAF chief of staff Gen Norton Schwartz, speaking at an event hosted by the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. "But the reality is, is that scenario is not a high sortie generation scenario."... ???????????????????????????????????????????? [HOW "BOUT BEING CLOSER TO THE FIGHT FOR SHORT TRANSIT TIMES?]

...Retired Lt Gen George Trautman, a former US Marine Corps (USMC) deputy commandant for aviation, disputes Schwartz's assertion that the F-35B cannot generate as many sorties as the A or C model aircraft.

"The F35B has highest sortie generation rate among the three JSF [Joint Strike Fighter] variants," Trautman says. "There may be other reasons the air force doesn't want the B, but sortie rate isn't a factor."

In fact, the USMC's concept of operations depends on the STOVL variant generating more sorties more rapidly than other JSF models, says retired USMC Lt Gen Emerson Gardner, a former naval aviator.

The key performance parameters (KPP) for the F-35 require higher sortie rates for the B-model at four sorties per day. The A and C models are only required to generate three sorties per day.

"So far in SDD [System Development and Demonstration], all three variants are on track to exceed their KPPs at the completion of SDD," Gardner says. "The B looks to come in at about six sorties per day, the A at about 3.5 and the C at close to four."

While USAF will not consider buying the F-35B, the service is fully committed to buying its own conventional take-off F-35A variant...."